One More Foxtrot: a tale of second chances, Paperback

Finalist Indie Book Awards 2019
FIRST PLACE FICTION: National Federation of Press Woman Communication Contest 2018
Sequel to Escape from Assisted Living

What does it take to forgive, or move on, or rekindle romance? And do second chances offer just deserts? The Miles and D'Angelo's rewritten family history offers answers.

The year after octogenarian Betty Miles' exit from senior living (Escape from Assisted Living), she's staying in Chicago. Her daughter Sharon D'Angelo is busy with her new dessert shop in Elkhart, Indiana, funded by a legacy from her father. This equanimity between Betty and Sharon may be short-lived after a stranger makes an astonishing claim. Will mother and daughter work through this mystery together? Of course not. They have protected each other from upsetting truths their entire lives.

Sharon has her hands full--clients making moves on her husband, her mother-in-law meddling in the desserts, and a visitor sleeping over--she encourages her mother to stay away. Time isn't right for revelations of the goings-on in Elkhart that have propelled Sharon's Desserts from the red to the black.

Betty's happy in her city life with friend Eleanor. She's speed dating, making new friends, and reconnecting with an old one. She's also sleuthing family history, but she keeps her suspicions from Sharon because a good wife and mother should not tarnish a reputation. When all the women meet by accident in Chicago, results of past transgressions come to light. How will the family react?

About author(s):Joyce Hicks' stories spring from her interest in the minutiae of family life, particularly at gateways to new stages. She's an observer in public space of the serious, mundane, or hilarious interchanges of others. She has appeared at story-telling events in Chicago. Quilting, knitting, and gardening are other pursuits. Her stories have appeared in Literary Mama, Passager, Kudzu House, Great Lakes Review, and others. Go to joycebhicks.com for links to her stories.